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TAMK International

Reconnecting with partners and alumni and starting new collaborations

— Riikka Kramer
Five people standing outside behind a sign.
Picture1: With the University of Magallanes, TAMK is working on a project to train around 30 teachers from 10 elementary schools in Pedagogical Innovation.

From November 3rd to 17th Virpi Heinonen and Marta Gil-Carcedo from Tampere University of Applied Sciences were on a business trip to Chile. The purpose of the visit was to reconnect with partners and alumni and start new collaborations from north to south. There were many meetings with current and new partners to design and plan new ambitious training programmes and workshops.

In the north of Chile, in Mejillones, a workshop was organised with the educational leaders who participated in the Innovation and Leadership in Education diploma programme (ILE)(2019). During the workshop, the school principals reflected on what they had learnt in Tampere, shared with their peers what new initiatives they were implementing in their schools, conducted a SWOT analysis of education in their schools and in their region, and discussed the best ways to continue the collaboration between them thanks to the network created over the years.

With ILE partners Virpi and Marta also worked on the proposal of a 2-year educational leadership training programme for 30 leaders and 200 teachers from ten schools in the Antofagasta region. The training programme will begin next spring and will include on-site training in Chile, online training for leaders and teachers, a two-week stay for the leaders in Tampere, and the design and implementation of a development project in the educational institutions participating in the programme. During the programme, research will be conducted to measure the local impact in the region. This programme is a part of a bigger 10-year Programa AntofaEDUCA project, which has a goal to achieve an educational transformation in the Antofagasta region.

People posing in group picture.
Picture 2: A group picture from a workshop in Mejillones.

In the capital, Santiago, a workshop was held with alumni of Educators for Sustainable Future (2021) at the SOFOFA facilities, which had funded the programme to train 20 basic education teachers on sustainability in education. The expert teachers in charge of the training, Eveliina Asikainen and Elina Harju from Finland led the workshop.

After the workshop and lunch with the alumni, the possibility of raising funds for another training programme involving more teachers was discussed with SOFOFA’s president, Mr. Richard von Appen. Mr. von Appen was very interested in learning about the success factors of Finnish education and being able to apply them to the Chilean context through future programmes that train Chilean teachers as agents of change in collaboration between TAMK and SOFOFA.

The last stop of the trip was Punta Arenas in Patagonia in Southern Chile. With the University of Magallanes, TAMK is working on a project to train around 30 teachers from 10 elementary schools in Pedagogical Innovation. The programme will also start in the spring of 2023 and will have a duration of one year plus 6 months of implementation of a development project in the educational institutions participating in the programme. The training will have different stages that will include on-site training in Chile by two expert teachers from TAMK, an online training phase, and a two-week stay of the participating teachers in Finland. In addition, research will be conducted in collaboration between TAMK and UMAG to measure the local impact of this project.

 

Text: Marta Gil-Carcedo Cabezon and Virpi Heinonen

Pictures:

Picture 1: The archive of TAMK Global Education

Picture 2: Kenneth Gent

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